


another him

by ninata



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/strange fake, ロード・エルメロイⅡ世の事件簿 - 三田誠 | Lord El-Melloi II Case Files - Sanda Makoto
Genre: Character Study, M/M, characterization spoilers, sleepy boy hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22644205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninata/pseuds/ninata
Summary: Something is sleeping inside Flat Escardos. (VAGUE FSF 6 SPOILERS)
Relationships: Flat Escardos/Svin Glascheit
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	another him

**Author's Note:**

> warnings for:  
> -fsf 6 spoilers  
> -some violent imagery
> 
> enjoy!

Flat curls up against Svin’s arm, his vision hazy with sleep.

“...Are you awake?” Svin asks softly. Flat feels a flutter in his chest, pressing his face into Svin’s sleeve briefly before pulling back. 

“Yep! Are we home yet?”

Svin shakes his head. There’s something so passively kind about that gesture, Flat is shocked. What good luck, Svin being in a nice mood.

“Wanna play cards?” Flat asks, still tucked close to the other blond, leaning his head on his shoulder.

“Not really.” Svin reaches up suddenly, pinching the bridge of Flat’s nose.

“Wah...What’s that for?”

“Your freckles are all over.” Is the only explanation. Svin looks away, then leans to dig through his bag. “Want some candy?”

“Yes! Do you even need to ask?!”

Svin passes some malted candies to him. His hand unfurls as they pass from one grip to another, chocolate pearls. Flat scarfs them down, then stretches his arms.

The contact between them never severs. If Flat is grateful for that, he cannot find the words for it, nor can he think to articulate it in the first place. It’s unfathomable, to reach out and be met with skin, pliant skin, friendly blue eyes— to think he could live in such a world, where someone would return a casual touch or gesture without hesitating.

“Say, le Chien—“

“Don’t call me le Chien.”

“Do you know about Norse mythology?”

“...That’s a weird question.” Svin stuffs his face with chocolates. The traincar drones in a soft, rickety hum. “Yeah, I know a bit. Why?”

“Do you know about Loki?”

“Yeah, I guess?”

“Loki was…”

Flat feels far away.

“Loki was always doing what the Gods asked, y’know, but they treated him like garbage because he wasn’t one of them. He was a Frost Giant.

“He was always treated differently because he wasn’t one of them. He thought differently and acted differently, so everyone was hard on him. No one ever tried to understand him, and no one was ever nice to him… Like! He’d always get in trouble, and they’d sew his mouth shut, or trap him in a chest for months and months without food or a bathroom, y’know? And then one day, he finally couldn’t take it anymore, and killed the God of everything good, Baldr.”

Flat feels adrift in the ocean, or the stars. He feels like an invisible spider on the reverse side of the world, or a growing root, pulsing and throbbing in the darkness. 

“And everyone got mad, and there was a big fight, and then he was tied to a rock, and THEN he ended the world! Pretty weird, huh?”

“I...guess?” Svin pops another candy in his mouth.

“Loki died knowing everyone hated him, and that he’d always be different. But he had a purpose, and Ragnarok kept him from dying in despair. His purpose was to destroy everything instead of himself. His purpose was to bring about the end of all things, and to hold all his anger and sadness inside him until it was a potent enough poison to kill the world.”

“Are you sure that’s how it went…?”

Flat cackles, a foreign noise. “Maybe, maybe! But...I guess, neither the Gods nor the Frost Giants could love him. He didn’t belong on either side, and in the end, that drove him to the point of no return.”

“I see…”

“...Well, what do you think of him?”

Svin chews, mulling it over. 

“...He sounds lonely.”

Flat gapes at Svin. “Huh? Lonely? Where did THAT come from?”

“Well, because no one accepted him, right? That must have been lonely. Maybe if someone was nice to him,” Svin swallows his candy. His throat shifts, pale skin with paler peach fuzz receding into his hair. The light filtering in from the window with the curtain over it makes Svin’s hair almost glow, and Flat watches it with a certain melancholy he doesn’t understand. “Maybe if someone was nice to him, he wouldn’t have done anything bad.”

Flat rests against the back of their seat. He is the monster sleeping inside a briefcase, an incarnation of all the world’s evils— No, a creature a Dead Apostle would reject, reviled by everyone. He is evil, and he knows it— he knows that deep down, something in him itches for the end of humanity, itches for the completion of a thousand year old dream. Another him, waiting patiently, kicking their feet and staring with blank, distant eyes. Another him, dragging their nails against the walls, down to bloody, brittle stumps, tally marking and counting down until the time they can crawl out of Flat’s body and leave him dead, if only to tear this world apart themself.

Flat has a secret so tremendous, he doesn’t even understand it. It scares him, banging on the bars of its cell sometimes, standing and speaking sweetly so he’ll come close other times. Something, or someone, inside Flat Escardos could threaten the very balance of the world as it is known.

How does he say that? What could he do to convey that to another person?

Svin suddenly leans in, sniffing Flat. “Why are you so sad? It’s okay. Loki’s dead and gone, I think.” 

“I— Don’t mind me, Svin. I’m just surprised you’re so nice.”

“What does that mean?! I’m nice all the time!”

“Yeah? Like when you’re barking at me and calling me stupid?”

“You ARE stupid!”

They bicker meaninglessly for a bit longer. Finally, Flat gives up and pulls out his Gameboy, and Svin decides to watch along.

They lean on each other, their knees touching. That is more than anything Flat could ask for, anything he could dream of or wish for. But he knows one truth— No one will ever understand him. And no one will ever want to. 

**Author's Note:**

> me: haha i know exactly how fsf is going to go  
> fsf 6: *does that*  
> me: *explodes*  
> anyway narita turn on your location!!!! i just wanna talk!  
> unforutnately i have a disease that makes me think about svin and flat whenever new flat lore comes up and it's called being a fucking idiot. i'm...sad! thank you.


End file.
